As - Domitian S C, Spes

This as falls within Domitian's tenure as Caesar under his father Vespasian, struck while he held no real power — a frustration that would define his psychology long before he became emperor. Vespasian kept Domitian ceremonially visible but administratively sidelined, having watched him attempt an unauthorized military campaign in Gaul in 70 AD. The Spes type on aes coinage of this period draws on traditional Republican hope imagery revived by the Flavians to legitimize a dynasty founded on civil war rather than hereditary right.